David Hilbert was particularly interested in the foundations of mathematics. Among many other things, he is famous for his attempt to axiomatize mathematics. This now classic text is his treatment of symbolic logic. This translation is based on the second German edition and has been modified according to the criticisms of Church and Quine. In particular, the authors' original formulation of Godel's completeness proof for the predicate calculus has been updated. In the first half of the twentieth century, an important debate on the foundations of mathematics took place. Principles of Mathematical Logic represents one of Hilbert's important contributions to that debate. Although symbolic logic has grown considerably in the subsequent decades, this book remains a classic.

The History of Philosophical and Formal Logic introduces ideas and thinkers central to the development of philosophical and formal logic. From its Aristotelian origins to the present-day arguments, logic is broken down into four main time periods: Antiquity and the Middle Ages (Aristotle and The Stoics) The early modern period (Bolzano, Boole) High modern period (Frege, Peano & Russell and Hilbert) Early 20th century (Godel and Tarski) Each new time frame begins with an introductory overview highlighting themes and points of importance. Chapters discuss the significance and reception of influential works and look at historical arguments in the context of contemporary debates. To support independent study, comprehensive lists of primary and secondary reading are included at the end of chapters, along with exercises and discussion questions. By clearly presenting and explaining the changes to logic across the history of philosophy, The History of Philosophical and Formal Logic constructs an easy-to-follow narrative. This is an ideal starting point for students looking to understand the historical development of logic.

This seminal, multidisciplinary book shows how mathematics can be used to study the first principles of DNA. Most importantly, it enriches the so-called “Chargaff’s grammar of biology” by providing the conceptual theoretical framework necessary to generalize Chargaff’s rules. Starting with a simple example of DNA mathematical modeling where human nucleotide frequencies are associated to the Fibonacci sequence and the Golden Ratio through an optimization problem, its breakthrough is showing that the reverse, complement and reverse-complement operators defined over oligonucleotides induce a natural set partition of DNA words of fixed-size. These equivalence classes, when organized into a matrix form, reveal hidden patterns within the DNA sequence of every living organism. Intended for undergraduate and graduate students both in mathematics and in life sciences, it is also a valuable resource for researchers interested in studying invariant genomic properties.

Venn, best known for his diagrams for set theory, primarily studied logic and probability theory. The present book is a study of the principles of logic, with special emphasis on inference and induction. From the Preface to the First Edition (1889): ``As many readers will probably perceive, the main original guiding influence with me--as with most of those of the middle generation, and especially with most of those who approached logic with previous mathematical or scientific training--was that of Mill ... I still continue to regard the general attitude towards phenomena, which Mill took up as a logician, to be the soundest and most useful for scientific study ... '' From the Preface to the Second Edition (1907): ``Though thus leaving the main outlines unaltered I have done what I could to improve the work, and to try to bring it up to date ... A number of paragraphs have been altered, others have been re-written, and many hundreds of minor alterations, additions and corrections inserted ... ''

This original anthology collects 10 of Weyl's less-technical writings that address the broader scope and implications of mathematics. Most have been long unavailable or not previously published in book form. Subjects include logic, topology, abstract algebra, relativity theory, and reflections on the work of Weyl's mentor, David Hilbert. 2012 edition.

Venn's style is to take his readers very much into his confidence: as he builds the theory, he carefully points out the alternative paths he might have taken, the alternative definitions he might have used, he shows what the implications of these alternatives are, and justifies his choice on the broadest possible grounds. What is distinctive about this work may be given in part in Venn's own words: ``The thorough examination of symbolic logic as a whole, that is, in its relation to ordinary logic and ordinary thought and language; the establishment of every general symbolic expression and rule on purely logical principles, instead of looking mainly to its formal justification; and the invention and employment of a scheme of diagrammatic notation which shall be in true harmony with our generalizations.''

Georg Cantor, the founder of set theory, published his last paper on sets in 1897. In 1900, David Hilbert made Cantor's Continuum Problem and the challenge of well-ordering the real numbers the first problem in his famous Paris lecture. It was time for the appearance of the second generation of Cantorians. They emerged in the decade 1900-1909, and foremost among them were Ernst Zermelo and Felix Hausdorff. Zermelo isolated the Choice Principle, proved that every set could be well-ordered, and axiomatized the concept of set. He became the father of abstract set theory. Hausdorff eschewed foundations and pursued set theory as part of the mathematical arsenal. He was recognized as the era's leading Cantorian. From 1901-1909, Hausdorff published seven articles in which he created a representation theory for ordered sets and investigated sets of real sequences partially ordered by eventual dominance, together with their maximally ordered subsets. These papers are translated and appear in this volume. Each is accompanied by an introductory essay. These highly accessible works are of historical significance, not only for set theory, but also for model theory, analysis and algebra.

This book provides a clear and logical path to understanding what quantum mechanics is about. It will be accessible to undergraduates with minimal mathematical preparation: all that is required is an open mind, a little algebra, and a first course in undergraduate physics. Quantum mechanics is arguably the most successful physical theory. It makes predictions of incredible accuracy. It provides the structure underlying all of our electronic technology, and much of our mastery over materials. But compared with Newtonian mechanics, or even relativity, its teachings seem obscure--they have no counterpart in everyday experience, and they sometimes contradict our simplest notions of how the world works. A full understanding of the theory requires prior mastery of very advanced mathematics. This book aims at a different goal: to teach the reader, step by step, how the theory came to be and what, fundamentally, it is about. Most students learn physics by learning techniques and formulas. This is especially true in a field like quantum mechanics, whose content often contradicts our common sense, and where it's tempting to retreat into mathematical formalism. This book goes behind the formalism to explain in direct language the conceptual content and foundations of quantum mechanics: the experiments that forced physicists to construct such a strange theory, and the essential elements of its strangeness.

This remarkable book endures as a true masterpiece of mathematical exposition. The book is overflowing with mathematical ideas, which are always explained clearly and elegantly, and above all, with penetrating insight. It is a joy to read, both for beginners and experienced mathematicians. Geometry and the Imagination is full of interesting facts, many of which you wish you had known before. The book begins with examples of the simplest curves and surfaces, including thread constructions of certain quadrics and other surfaces. The chapter on regular systems of points leads to the crystallographic groups and the regular polyhedra in $\mathbb{R}^3$. In this chapter, they also discuss plane lattices. By considering unit lattices, and throwing in a small amount of number theory when necessary, they effortlessly derive Leibniz's series: $\pi/4 = 1 - 1/3 + 1/5 - 1/7 + - \ldots$. In the section on lattices in three and more dimensions, the authors consider sphere-packing problems, including the famous Kepler problem. One of the most remarkable chapters is ``Projective Configurations''. In a short introductory section, Hilbert and Cohn-Vossen give perhaps the most concise and lucid description of why a general geometer would care about projective geometry and why such an ostensibly plain setup is truly rich in structure and ideas. The chapter on kinematics includes a nice discussion of linkages and the geometry of configurations of points and rods that are connected and, perhaps, constrained in some way. This topic in geometry has become increasingly important in recent times, especially in applications to robotics. This is another example of a simple situation that leads to a rich geometry. It would be hard to overestimate the continuing influence Hilbert-Cohn-Vossen's book has had on mathematicians of this century. It surely belongs in the "pantheon" of great mathematics books.

This reprint of the original 1914 edition of this famous work contains many topics that had to be omitted from later editions, notably, Symmetric Sets, Principle of Duality, most of the ``Algebra'' of Sets, Partially Ordered Sets, Arbitrary Sets of Complexes, Normal Types, Initial and Final Ordering, Complexes of Real Numbers, General Topological Spaces, Euclidean Spaces, the Special Methods Applicable in the Euclidean Plane, Jordan's Separation Theorem, the Theory of Content and Measure, the Theory of the Lebesgue Integral. The text is in German.